Composite materials such as fiberglass reinforced plastic (FRP) are used in a variety of applications, including marine, transportation, energy, and construction. As one illustrative example, an FRP composite 10 for a marine application has a structure as illustrated in FIG. 1. There is a gelcoat layer 15 followed by 1 layer with 1.0 oz. resin/glass 20. Next come 4 layers with 1.5 oz. resin/glass 25. They are followed by 1 layer with 1.0 oz. resin/glass 30 and a wood, foam, or honeycomb reinforcement layer 35. This composite contains about 8 oz. of resin/glass, which gives the composite good strength.
However, it would be desirable to reduce the weight of the composite for some applications. It would also be desirable to maintain the properties at the same level or to only have a slight reduction in properties.
Attempts have been made to utilize alternative materials in FRP composites. For example, lightweight materials such as balsa and CoreMat® have been tried. However, these materials require much more time to utilize. In addition, they are more expensive to use because of the very high resin demand. Furthermore, they cannot be used in all laminate structures due to the difficulty of hand laying them in small radius areas. Other low density materials do not provide sufficient weight reduction.
Therefore, there is a need for a material which allows the weight of a composite to be reduced.